Characteristic Quantities of Microvascular Structures in CLSM Volume Datasets

A method for fully automated morphological and topological quantification of microvascular structures in confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) volume datasets is presented. Several characteristic morphological and topological quantities are calculated in a series of image-processing steps and can be used to compare single components as well as whole networks of microvascular structures to each other. The effect of the individual image-processing steps is illustrated and characteristic quantities of measured volume datasets are presented and discussed.

[1]  Charles V. Stewart,et al.  Retinal Vessel Centerline Extraction Using Multiscale Matched Filters, Confidence and Edge Measures , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[2]  Jue Wu,et al.  A Segmentation Model Using Compound Markov Random Fields Based on a Boundary Model , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[3]  Milan Sonka,et al.  A Fully Parallel 3D Thinning Algorithm and Its Applications , 1996, Comput. Vis. Image Underst..

[4]  Gabriele Lohmann,et al.  Volumetric image analysis , 1998 .

[5]  Milan Sonka,et al.  Quantitative analysis of pulmonary airway tree structures , 2006, Comput. Biol. Medicine.

[6]  E. Keshet,et al.  A plasticity window for blood vessel remodelling is defined by pericyte coverage of the preformed endothelial network and is regulated by PDGF-B and VEGF. , 1998, Development.

[7]  Arne Møller,et al.  A simple procedure for quantification of neurite outgrowth based on stereological principles , 2000, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[8]  Francis K. H. Quek,et al.  A review of vessel extraction techniques and algorithms , 2004, CSUR.

[9]  Ali Afzali-Kusha,et al.  Snake modeling and distance transform approach to vascular centerline extraction and quantification. , 2003, Computerized medical imaging and graphics : the official journal of the Computerized Medical Imaging Society.

[10]  William H. Richardson,et al.  Bayesian-Based Iterative Method of Image Restoration , 1972 .

[11]  Roland Wilson,et al.  Analysis of Retinal Vasculature Using a Multiresolution Hermite Model , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[12]  Kaleem Siddiqi,et al.  Flux driven automatic centerline extraction , 2005, Medical Image Anal..

[13]  Jiří Janáček,et al.  Topological Properties and Spatial Organization of Villous Capillaries in Normal and Diabetic Placentas , 2002, Journal of Vascular Research.

[14]  Françoise J. Prêteux,et al.  Assessment of Airway Remodeling in Asthma: Volumetric Versus Surface Quantification Approaches , 2006, MICCAI.

[15]  Bülent Sankur,et al.  Survey over image thresholding techniques and quantitative performance evaluation , 2004, J. Electronic Imaging.

[16]  Bernhard Frerich,et al.  Nichtlineare Reaktionsdiffusionssysteme und ihre Anwendung zur Bewertung von dreidimensionalen Gewebskulturen , 2002, Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin.

[17]  N. Alperin,et al.  A new automatic skeletonization algorithm for 3D vascular volumes , 2004, The 26th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[18]  E Meijering,et al.  Design and validation of a tool for neurite tracing and analysis in fluorescence microscopy images , 2004, Cytometry. Part A : the journal of the International Society for Analytical Cytology.

[19]  Heinz-Otto Peitgen,et al.  Morphological segmentation and partial volume analysis for volumetry of solid pulmonary lesions in thoracic CT scans , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[20]  Bernhard Frerich,et al.  Microvascular engineering in perfusion culture: immunohistochemistry and CLSM findings , 2006, Head & face medicine.

[21]  J. Sled,et al.  3D visualisation and quantification by microcomputed tomography of late gestational changes in the arterial and venous feto-placental vasculature of the mouse. , 2007, Placenta.

[22]  R. Fernandez-Gonzalez,et al.  A tool for the quantitative spatial analysis of mammary gland epithelium , 2004, The 26th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[23]  Guillermo Sapiro,et al.  Interactive Image Segmentation via Adaptive Weighted Distances , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[24]  King-Sun Fu,et al.  A parallel thinning algorithm for 3-D pictures , 1981 .

[25]  Larry V McIntire,et al.  A technique for quantitative three-dimensional analysis of microvascular structure. , 2002, Microvascular research.

[26]  Joachim Weickert,et al.  Coherence-Enhancing Diffusion Filtering , 1999, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[27]  Stephen R. Aylward,et al.  Initialization, noise, singularities, and scale in height ridge traversal for tubular object centerline extraction , 2002, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[28]  Khalid A. Al-Kofahi,et al.  Rapid automated three-dimensional tracing of neurons from confocal image stacks , 2002, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.

[29]  B. Frerich,et al.  In vitro model of a vascular stroma for the engineering of vascularized tissues. , 2001, International journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery.

[30]  Badrinath Roysam,et al.  Automated semantic analysis of changes in image sequences of neurons in culture , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[31]  Christophe Lohou,et al.  A new 3D 12-subiteration thinning algorithm based on P-simple points , 2001, Electron. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci..

[32]  Roberto Marcondes Cesar Junior,et al.  Retinal vessel segmentation using the 2-D Gabor wavelet and supervised classification , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[33]  Nikolas P. Galatsanos,et al.  A Class-Adaptive Spatially Variant Mixture Model for Image Segmentation , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[34]  Paul A. Yushkevich,et al.  Continuous Medial Representation for Anatomical Structures , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[35]  P. Ramm,et al.  Automated Screening of Neurite Outgrowth , 2003, Journal of biomolecular screening.

[36]  Dimitrios I. Fotiadis,et al.  Automated segmentation and quantification of inflammatory tissue of the hand in rheumatoid arthritis patients using magnetic resonance imaging data , 2007, Artif. Intell. Medicine.

[37]  Geoff Dougherty,et al.  Robust measures of three-dimensional vascular tortuosity based on the minimum curvature of approximating polynomial spline fits to the vessel mid-line. , 2007, Medical engineering & physics.

[38]  Attila Kuba,et al.  A Parallel 3D 12-Subiteration Thinning Algorithm , 1999, Graph. Model. Image Process..

[39]  L. Lucy.  An iterative technique for the rectification of observed distributions , 1974 .

[40]  T. Saito,et al.  A sequential thinning algorithm for three dimensional digital pictures using the Euclidean distance transformation , 1995 .

[41]  Tatijana Stosic,et al.  Multifractal analysis of human retinal vessels , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[42]  G. M. P. VAN KEMPEN,et al.  A quantitative comparison of image restoration methods for confocal microscopy , 1997 .

[43]  Gilles Bertrand,et al.  A simple parallel 3D thinning algorithm , 1990, [1990] Proceedings. 10th International Conference on Pattern Recognition.

[44]  Albert C. S. Chung,et al.  Augmented vessels for quantitative analysis of vascular abnormalities and endovascular treatment planning , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[45]  Frans C. A. Groen,et al.  Three-Dimensional Skeletonization: Principle and Algorithm , 1980, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

[46]  Badrinath Roysam,et al.  A 2-D/3-D model-based method to quantify the complexity of microvasculature imaged by in vivo multiphoton microscopy. , 2005, Microvascular research.

[47]  Attila Kuba,et al.  A 3D 6-subiteration thinning algorithm for extracting medial lines , 1998, Pattern Recognit. Lett..

[48]  Ana Maria Mendonça,et al.  Segmentation of retinal blood vessels by combining the detection of centerlines and morphological reconstruction , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[49]  A Hemprich,et al.  Maturation of capillary-like structures in a tube-like construct in perfusion and rotation culture. , 2008, International journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery.

[50]  Joachim Weickert,et al.  Anisotropic diffusion in image processing , 1996 .

[51]  Martial Hebert,et al.  Toward Objective Evaluation of Image Segmentation Algorithms , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

[52]  Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff,et al.  Quantitative Image Analysis in Mammary Gland Biology , 2004, Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia.

[53]  Aaron F. Bobick,et al.  Multiscale 3-D Shape Representation and Segmentation Using Spherical Wavelets , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[54]  Stephen R. Aylward,et al.  Analyzing attributes of vessel populations , 2005, Medical Image Anal..

[55]  Xiaobo Zhou,et al.  Automated neurite labeling and analysis in fluorescence microscopy images , 2006, Cytometry. Part A : the journal of the International Society for Analytical Cytology.

[56]  Marleen de Bruijne,et al.  Multi-object Segmentation Using Shape Particles , 2005, IPMI.

[57]  Max A. Viergever,et al.  Vessel Axis Tracking Using Topology Constrained Surface Evolution , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[58]  Bernhard Frerich,et al.  Influence of growth hormone on maintenance of capillary-like structures in an in vitro model of stromal vascular tissue--results from morphometric analysis. , 2005, Artificial organs.

[59]  Gilles Bertrand,et al.  Three-dimensional thinning algorithm using subfields , 1995, Other Conferences.

[60]  Ashutosh Chaturvedi,et al.  Three-dimensional segmentation and skeletonization to build an airway tree data structure for small animals , 2005, Physics in medicine and biology.

[61]  C. Betsholtz,et al.  Endothelial-perivascular cell signaling in vascular development: lessons from knockout mice. , 1998, Current opinion in lipidology.

[62]  R. Hummel,et al.  The wrapper algorithm: surface extraction and simplification , 1994, Proceedings of IEEE Workshop on Biomedical Image Analysis.

[63]  W. Risau,et al.  Mechanisms of angiogenesis , 1997, Nature.

[64]  Hong Shen,et al.  Rapid automated tracing and feature extraction from retinal fundus images using direct exploratory algorithms , 1999, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.